Dawkins is the pre-eminent evolutionary scientist alive, having authored the classic exposition The Selfish Gene, as well as Unweaving the Rainbow, The Blind Watchmaker, and my personal anti-Bible A Devil's Chaplain. In his latest book, Dawkins coaxes the silent crowds of atheists out of the closet so we can reckon with obsolete religions that retard science, stifle educators, cripple government, outlaw stem cell research, promote terrorism, preclude peace, suppress women's rights, and impoverish the gullible. In its groundbreaking cover story this month, Wired calls Dawkins "the leading light of the New Atheism movement."

In the roiling debate between science and religion, it would be hard to exaggerate the enormous influence of Richard Dawkins. The British scientist is religion’s chief prosecutor — “Darwin’s rottweiler,” as one magazine called him — and quite likely the world’s most famous atheist. Speaking to the American Humanist Association, Dawkins once said, “I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.

Of course, no news is real news until Stephen Colbert says it is. Here's his interview this week with the "scientist who argues there is no God...with an eternity in Hell to prove it."

I expect that on Sunday Professor Dawkins will talk about his new Foundation For Reason and Science. I hope to see you all there, with plenty of books in hand for the rottweiler to sign.

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